Pepper - the spice of our family

Pepper, our toy poodle, died last Saturday after a month long sickness.  Pepper lived to be almost 15 years old.  He was rarely ever sick until the end.  The vet thought it was a tumor.  He seemed to get better after some medicine.  Enjoyed Christmas with us, opening his presents, playing with family and friends and meeting our new grandson.  But the last week he got very weak and was not eating.  His red blood count was very low.  Took him to the vet twice and the vet said nothing could be done as he was bleeding internally.  At the end he could not stand up.  We held him as he was put asleep.  It was very sad.

But I want to write about what Pepper was like and how he was totally part of our family.

Mandy making Pepper a "French Poodle"




• In 1998, Mandy, who kept begging us for a dog finally convinced us and she choose Pepper from a litter of puppies.   He was the most active and friendly one.   We all went to doggy school to learn how to live together.  Pepper learned to sit, to come and to walk with us.

• Back home over time, Pepper learned lots of tricks.  He could shake your hand, roll over and dance on his hind legs.  He would sit patiently looking at a treat you put in front of him until you said "OK".   You could tell him to go to sleep and he would lay down on his side.  He would do most anything for a treat!

• Pepper loved to play ball.   Over the years developed two games with him.  In the morning,  he would run after and return a white ball, but to confuse him I would throw other items - little stuffed animals, little football, tennis ball, etc.   He learned to watch carefully what I was throwing and where I would throw them.   Generally, only when I threw the white ball would he chase after it.  

Then in the evening, we would play with a different set of balls.  There were 4 fluffy balls in a cloth cube which he would pull out.   Then I would throw out the balls and he would chase them or I would throw them up in the air and he would jump up to catch them or I would throw them back and forth under my legs and he would jump in and grab it.    Also, he liked to run and catch a soft Frisbee.

• Pepper loved to play hide and seek.   Scott and Bev loved to play this with him also.  We would run and hide and he would try to find us. 

• Pepper loved to run back and forth very fast in the hall way and family room and if you laid down he would jump over you and then turn around and jump over you again and again.  Or run between your legs.

• Our "doggy in the window".  Whenever we left him alone in the house, he would sit on the front sofa (or a chair at grandparent's home) looking out the front window waiting patiently for us to come back.  When we came home he would jump up and greet us going back and forth between us.

• Pepper loved to open his Christmas and birthday presents.  He would tear off the wrapping paper and then tear open the bag containing treats.  We would have to pull it away from him otherwise he would eat all of it then and there!  

• Almost every day, except when it was raining or very cold, we went for about a mile walk around the neighborhood.  We met lots of other dogs and other neighbors.  And we got lots of exercise!

• Pepper loved to go on trips with us - visiting friends, relatives and vacations.

George, Charlotte & Pepper on the Mississippi

Pepper & Gene at falls in Lanesboro Minn.

 Bev & Pepper riding boat to Mackinac Island

Norma with Pepper in Iowa

Visiting Gene's brother and family in Jacksonville Florida

• When I work in my workshop at home, Pepper would come check on me every so often.  Sometimes he would lay on the floor and watch me.

• When Bev fixes dinner, Pepper would hang around the kitchen waiting for something to fall on to the ground.  He liked people food.   After a while, if he didn't get any food he would start barking. 

• Pepper would attack the vacuum cleaner.  We would have to put a barrier up to keep him on one side of the house while we vacuum the other.

• When we would watch a movie usually on Friday or Saturday evening, he would get very excited about half way through.  Not of the movie, but in the expectation that we would soon get out the cheese.  He loved cheese. 

• One time I wrote down all the words I think Pepper knew - it was over a hundred!  We had to start spelling words if we did not want him to know what we were talking about!

• Pepper liked getting his hair cut.  Poodle's have hair rather than fur.    After grooming he was soft and fluffy.   Initially Pepper was all black, but with age, his hair became whiter and whiter.

• Pepper slept in his own bed next to our bed.  If it was storming, he would jump in bed with us.  In the morning after Bev would leave for work, he would jump in bed with me.

 The house is so empty now.   We miss him.